Newt Gingrich doubled down on his weekend claim that defeating President Obama is a matter of national security, ripping the president for what he described as policies of appeasement.
On Monday, Gingrich said Obama was “the most dangerous president in modern American history,” and that defeating him in the 2012 election was “a duty of national security.”
The former House Speaker did not back off the comments when asked about them Tuesday on CBS and accused the administration of showing weakness to Islamic countries.
“Ask Secretary Clinton — why would she hold a meeting with the Organization of Islamic Countries at the State Department to talk about censoring anti-Islamic talk?” Gingrich said. “Why is it that when a Moroccan man is picked up as trying to bomb the U.S. Capitol, the Obama administration can’t even accurately describe him? It’s against the rules of the federal government today to talk accurately about radicalism.”
CBS "This Morning" host Charlie Rose said the Obama administration would argue that it has killed more members of al Qaeda than any previous administration, including 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.
Gingrich dismissed these accomplishments by pointing to issues that linger in the Arab world.
“If it’s been so effective, it barely got a guy on Saturday who was trying to blow up the U.S. Capitol,” he said.
The FBI and administration officials, however, have pointed to the thwarted bombing attempt as a successful security operation. The would-be suicide bomber, arrested on Friday, had been monitored by an FBI sting operation for more than a year, and the fake explosives he intended to use were given to him by an undercover officer.
“We have no idea in Pakistan who was hiding bin Laden, and in fact the Pakistanis have now arrested a Pakistani for having helped the Americans — not for having hid bin Laden — for having helped the Americans,” added Gingrich. “It’s been so effective that the Muslim Brotherhood is now the dominant party in Egypt and looking to get a nuclear weapon and breaking the treaty with Israel.
“It’s dangerous to America,” he said of the president’s foreign-policy approach.
Gingrich also accused President Obama of cutting and running from former Egyptian leader and U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak. The former Speaker said if he had been president, he would have quietly helped Mubarak exit the country.
“This is an administration that no country really trusts,” he said. “It’s the reason the Saudis are now signing a nuclear treaty with the Chinese, not the Americans; it’s the reason the Canadians are looking to build the oil pipeline with the Chinese, not the Americans. These things are all bad for American security.”
Gingrich and fellow GOP presidential contender Rick Santorum have both long accused the president of practicing appeasement toward Muslim nations.
On Monday, a Santorum aide further fueled the controversy when she described Obama’s policies as “radical Islamic,” though she later said she misspoke and meant to say “radical environmentalist.”
